Aux Larmes, Citoyens! Metz, Its Mayor, and His Mosque

Metz is a fine old city in northeast France. To the Romans, it was Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then Mettis, located at the confluence of the Moselle and Seille rivers, near the tripoint along the junction where France, Germany, and Luxembourg meet. One of the oldest cities in Europe, Metz has a rich 3,000-year history, having been a Celtic Iron Age settlement, a notable Gallic and Roman city, the Frankish Merovingian capital of Austrasia, the place where the Carolingian dynasty originated, and a birthplace also of Gregorian chant. It is a city steeped in French culture, but also, due to its location and history, in German culture as well.

Because of its historical, cultural and architectural background, the French government has proposed that Metz be denominated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Among its notable buildings is the Gothic Saint-Stephen Cathedral, which has the largest expanse of stained-glass windows in the world, and the Basilica of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains, which dates from the fourth century and is the oldest church in France. In Metz there is also the Imperial Station Palace, containing the apartment of the German Kaiser, and the oldest working opera house in France. A cultivated city, Metz also houses the Arsenal Concert Hall and the Centre Pompidou-Metz museum.

Metz is the birthplace of the poet Paul Verlaine, and a city where Rabelais, Cardinal Mazarin, Lafayette, and Tocqueville all lived for a time.

And now, this city famous for its Christian heritage — the oldest church in France, the largest expanse of stained-glass windows in the world, and so much more — is also home to a large mosque, the “Grand Mosque” of Metz, that is still under construction. Because of both its size and its location, when it is finished, the Grand Mosque will dilute the heretofore Christian essence of the city. Thousands of Muslims will show up for daily prayers and Friday khutbas (sermons). In serried ranks, they will prostrate themselves, turned toward Mecca in their zebibah-thickening head-hitting-floor rituals; the most observant will pray at the mosque five times a day. There are already several mosques in the city, but none nearly as grand as the one under construction.

Now the Messins (citizens of Metz) have been shocked at the intention of their mayor, François Grosdidier, to provide financial support from the city to the mosque. This violates the separation of church and state, enshrined in the principle of laicité, and is particularly disturbing in light of the failure of the city to provide similar financing for ancient churches fallen into states of grievous disrepair. More on the mayor’s plans can be found in the following communication that I received in French and have translated, with some explanatory additions, below:

Our Mayor, Francois Grosdidier, continues to support financially — against all legality and the law — the building of the Grand Mosque of Metz, and demonstrates, yet again, his preference for financially supporting places of Muslim worship, to the detriment of our Christian places of worship, now endangered because of their unmet need for repair.

Balance, and respect for our traditions, are at stake, demanding from us urgent action. It is imperative that we collectively demand that François Grosdidier cease to finance the mosques in our city and to prioritize the security and the preservation of our patrimony. These actions are not only necessary to protect our monuments, but are essential for maintaining the very essence of our culture and our values.

Grosdidier is one of those European politicians who is determined, in the interests of diversity, to welcome Muslim economic migrants into their countries, and to be deeply solicitous of their desires. In 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted into Germany more than one million Muslim migrants, proclaiming optimistically that “Wir schaffen das!” — “We can do this!” But less than a decade later, it is clear that neither the Germans, nor the French, nor any other people in Western Europe, can “do this” — that is, successfully integrate millions of Muslims into their societies. The thousands of No-Go Muslim zones in Europe, where non-Muslims are not welcome, and even the representatives of the state, such as firemen and policemen, fear to tread, is the clearest indicator of the inability, and unwillingness, of Muslims to integrate into a society formed by Infidels, that is, those whom Muslims are taught to regard as “the most vile of created beings.” The rates of unemployment show that Muslim migrants are in no hurry to be gainfully employed; their rates of criminality similarly show an unwillingness to conform to the laws of the Infidels, and a desire to add to the benefits they receive from the state — free or highly subsidized housing, free medical care, free education, unemployment benefits (without even having a work record), family allowances, and more — what they can derive from crimes of property: street muggings, shoplifting, house burglaries. These activities can be rationalized as a form of proleptic jizyah.

Why is the mayor of Metz so eager to please the Muslims in his city by financially supporting the construction of the Grand Mosque? It’s the same reason behind Biden’s attempts to hold Israel back from entering Rafah to finish its war with Hamas: votes. Biden is willing to sacrifice Israel’s security so as to win the support of Muslims in the key battleground state of Michigan, where Muslim voters play, the Bidenites believe, a decisive role and need to be placated. In the same way, the mayor of Metz has for years been cultivating support among the single largest bloc of voters in Metz — the Muslims of Metz. They will be deeply grateful for his use of city funds to help construct the Grand Mosque. They are one-issue voters. As for the Christians and post-Christians of Metz, and the ancient churches in the city that receive no similar support for repairs from the mayor, there is no single “Christian bloc” — unlike the Muslim bloc that can be secured by politicians vowing to support the mosque construction — whose members votes for candidates solely on the basis of their financial support for crumbling churches. Contributing to their repair should not be seen as supporting religion; these are venerable cultural artifacts; those most needing attention are no longer in use for regular worship. Instead they should be understood as tourist destinations, like the church of Saint-Stephen with its vast stained-glass treasures. That means repairs of these churches should not be seen as measures to benefit a particular religion, and its believers (unlike the municipal support for the Grand Mosque), but rather, will benefit all those, Christian or not, involved in the tourist business so important to the economy in Metz.